Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 312 There is no perfect solution in the world

In the third month of the second year of Xiaochang, Xiazhou, Fu Shi.

Fushe, an old revolutionary holy land.

This is the revolutionary holy land of northern Shaanxi in later generations. Li Zicheng also came from here in the late Ming Dynasty. Of course, if you trace it back earlier, you can also find "Water Margin". The second chapter is "Master Wang secretly leaves to Yan'an Prefecture, Jiuwenlong makes a big fuss in Shijia Village". Many characters in Water Margin are related to this land.

This place first appeared in history books when King Zhao, together with Qi and Yan, destroyed Zhongshan and moved Prince Fu Shi of Zhongshan to Beidi County. The place where Prince Fu Shi of Xianyu lived was later named Fu Shi.

In fact, Xiazhou also has good land. Fushi is a place suitable for farming and was later called Jiangnan on the Saishang.

However, at that time, Xiazhou was a place where Han and Hu people lived together, and a lot of land in Fushi was used for grazing.

Su Ze set up three Zhechoufu in Fushi and settled 3,000 households of the survivors of the Six Towns. At this time, he was inspecting a newly reclaimed farmland.

It is actually too late to open up the land in March, and we can't count on spring ploughing this year. But if it really doesn't work, we can still plant in summer, or wait until September to plant winter wheat.

Su Ze was wearing farmer's working shorts and walking barefoot in the mud. Dugu Xin simply dressed like a farmer, following Su Ze half a step behind, introducing the results of the land reclamation.

"General, this is the 'field division method' used in the agricultural book sent by Li Gong. Although this method is also recorded in the 'Book of Si Sheng', it is too brief. It is only thanks to Li Gong's agricultural book that this method can be reproduced."

In fact, the district field method is very simple to explain. It is to dig deep into the area and divide the land of a certain length and width into corresponding blocks. These blocks are called "machi". There are 15-inch wide sidewalks between towns.

In each town, a ditch one foot deep and 15 feet long was dug vertically and crops were planted in the ditch.

The zone field method is a further development of the substitute field method. Deep plowing is beneficial for preventing wind and drought, conserving moisture and increasing fertilizer. Moreover, the zone field method adopts dense planting, which has the advantage of convenient fertilization, so the per-acre yield using the zone field method will be relatively high.

Seeing the people reclaiming the land under the guidance of the agricultural officials, Su Ze was very happy.

Then, Su Nong (a farmer's disciple with excellent hands-on skills), dressed in farmer's clothes, stood in front of Su Ze and said with his arms crossed:
"My lord, I have a few words to say to you."

Over the years, Su Nong has guided the development of wasteland and improved planting methods and crops, and Su Ze has always respected him very much.

He immediately said:
"Master, please speak."

Sunon said:

"Although the District Field Method is good, it does not mean that you can have a good harvest every year. There are also many things to pay attention to when using the District Field Method. Let the lord know."

Su Ze said seriously:

"Please enlighten me."

Sunon said:

"Farming, in the final analysis, is a matter of 'output' and 'input'. The food grown is the output, while the seeds, manpower, and fertilizers invested are the 'input'. The output is related to the input. High output means high input."

“The Okuda method can produce higher output than the Daida method because more input is put into it.”

"First of all, deep plowing requires more manpower than normal farming, and the fields need fertilizer. General, please collect all the distiller's grains and soybean meal from Xiazhou to Fushi to fertilize the fields. Otherwise, the land will be exhausted in a few years and there will be no high yields."

Su Ze quickly wrote it down and asked Dugu Xin to prepare it.

Sunon continued:

"When the soil is fertile, the weeds will grow. Therefore, the district field method requires the organization of manpower to weed. The manpower consumed by district fields is far greater than that of substitute fields, so it is best used for emergency use. If there is more land, it is better to use substitute fields."

Su Ze understood why the land division system recorded in "Si Sheng's Book" was not widely implemented in ancient times. It turned out to be these two reasons.

Before industrialization, there were only a few sources of fertilizer, the main one being manure produced by humans and livestock.

Simply put, the high yield of the district field method is achieved by increasing per-acre yield based on high fertility and high manpower.

If we only consider the yield per mu, then the District Field Method is a martial arts secret book like the "Sunflower Manual".

However, if fertilizer and manpower consumption are taken into account, implementing the zoning system when there is spare land will actually overdraw the fertility of the land and increase the burden on the people.

Su Ze thought for a moment and said:
"Thank you for your teachings, Master. Dugu Xin, pass on my orders."

Dugu Xin started recording immediately.

"The excess lees from the government-run distilleries in Xiazhou were sent to Fushi, as were the leftover soybean meal from the government-run workshops. In addition, septic tanks were built in the newly built villages in Fushi to collect human and livestock feces to fertilize their fields."

"In areas where the kuten method is implemented, land taxes will be collected according to the regulations of the shogunate, but the household tax and corvée collected per capita will be reduced by half to rest the people."

"Local officials should be warned in particular not to pursue per-acre yields blindly and implement the district land system. This system should be used as a transition in the early stages of land reclamation. When there is more land, the main approach should be to grant more land."

"Go back and tell Su Cho that when evaluating local officials, we cannot just look at per-acre yields. We must collect grain according to local conditions. If anyone harms the people for personal political achievements, the officials will arrest them!"

Su Ze said this with murderous intent. The District Field Law is a good law, but if it is not properly implemented, it will become an evil law that harms the people.

The reason why Fushi is implementing the district field system is because of the drought this year. In addition, there are many survivors of the Six Towns to be resettled, but there is little land to be reclaimed. There is sufficient manpower, so the district field system can be used to prepare for disasters and transition.

However, if grain is collected based on the per-acre yield of the District Field System, the implementation of the District Field System by local officials would become a personal political achievement, and it would become an evil law that harms the people.

In history, the Jin Dynasty vigorously promoted the District Field System, but the purpose of the Jin Dynasty's implementation was to increase grain output. It set up agricultural promotion officials to collect grain. In the end, the District Field System was not implemented, and instead caused a decrease in grain production.

Dugu Xin was a little touched. Over the years, Su Ze was the only chief officer who cared about the people.

The most important thing is that Su Ze can seek truth from facts and never let his reputation and achievements get in the way. Su Ze said to Sunong:

"You need to train more children. This general is going to set up an order to encourage agriculture and place one in each Zhechongfu to promote agricultural techniques."

Su Ze certainly hopes to place an agricultural technical officer in every Sanchang Village, but currently there is not enough manpower, so he can only settle for the second best option and set it up in the Zhechongfu.

After the inspection, Su Ze said to Dugu Xin:
"Does this place have a name?"

Dugu Xin said:
"This place is south of the county seat, where the waterway bends. Locals call it South Bay."

Su Ze said:

"Then let's call it Nanniwan from now on. In addition, I will compose a song and teach the local farmers to sing it."

Dugu Xin was a little puzzled, but Su Ze's naming was a big deal, so he said:

"On behalf of the local people, I would like to thank the general for giving me this name."
-
While severe climate disturbances brought drought to the north, the south experienced a year of good weather and harvest.

To use the meteorological terminology of later generations, the north was controlled by a strong warm air mass, causing the rainfall line to move southward. Since the beginning of this spring, there have been several spring rains as precious as oil near Jiankang.

The Bodhisattva Emperor Xiao Yan was very happy, thinking that this was a reward from heaven for his diligent practice of virtue, so he generously donated money to the Buddhist temple again to accumulate merit for himself and the Daliang Dynasty.

Today, the Bodhisattva Emperor personally came to the outskirts of the city and inspected the farmland accompanied by his confidants.

Standing on Xiao Yan's left was his most favored minister Zhu Yi.

Although Zhu Yi's current position was only a Palace Attendant, like Xiao Yan, Zhu Yi was proficient in poetry, calligraphy, chess, and chess, and he often accompanied Xiao Yan. Therefore, when Xiao Yan often retreated to "cultivate", Zhu Yi could convey Xiao Yan's orders in the name of Xiao Yan.

Zhu Yi's greatest ability is that he is good at figuring out Xiao Yan's thoughts.

Standing on Xiao Yan's right was the monk Bian Ji, who had been quite favored recently.

Of course, the farmlands that Xiao Yan inspected were all arranged by his ministers. Even the farmers who worked in the fields were arranged by his ministers.

However, when Xiao Yan saw the busy spring plowing scene, he was in a very good mood and ordered the "farmers" who were working to be rewarded with silk.

These trained "farmers" knelt in unison in the fields, shouting "Long live the Buddha and the Emperor", which made Xiao Yan smile even more.

The local chief official breathed a sigh of relief only after Xiao Yan got on the carriage. However, Xiao Yan was in a good mood today and did not go back to the palace directly. Instead, he went to take a look at the surrounding farmland.

This frightened the local official so much that he immediately chased after him.

Xiao Yan saw a scene that was different from the previous one.

Only a few farmers were working the land, and instead of growing crops, they were planting mulberry trees.

Zhu Yi's face changed slightly. At that time, the land system of the Northern and Southern Dynasties stipulated that farmers had to plant a certain proportion of cash crops.

However, this ratio is also limited. Simply put, most of the land is used to grow food, and only a certain amount of cash crops can be planted on the ridges of the fields or near one's own "homestead".

This system is similar to the farmland protection system of the red line in later generations. An agricultural society is naturally based on agriculture. Planting too many cash crops will reduce the grain output of the entire country.

When Xiao Yan first ascended the throne, he attached great importance to farming and also paid attention to field laws.

It seems that this piece of land was originally farmland, but it was only converted into mulberry field today.

Xiao Yan actually ordered the guards to stop the carriage, and personally got off the carriage to chat with the farmers who planted mulberry trees.

Now Zhu Yi's expression changed.

The local chief official who rushed over turned pale.

"Zhang Family, was this originally a farmland?"

The farmer who was tilling the land was a serf of the manor. He had no idea that the man in front of him was the emperor of Southern Liang. He just said numbly:

"Whatever the master tells me to plant, I will plant. Now this is a mulberry field."

Xiao Yan was not angry, but found it interesting. He said:
“Why do we need to switch from rice to mulberry?”

The old serf looked at Xiao Yan as if he were an idiot, then saw that he was dressed in gorgeous clothes and knew that he was a nobleman, so he said:

"Growing grains makes less money, but raising silkworms makes more money. If there are fewer mulberry fields and not enough silkworms to eat, it's natural to plant mulberry trees instead."

"Is there enough food?"

"I can still make a living."

Xiao Yan returned to the carriage in a happy mood.

Zhu Yi observed his expression and immediately said:
"Congratulations, Your Majesty! Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

Xiao Yan asked:

"Where does joy come from?"

(End of this chapter)